Product Description

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Billy

Date Reviewed: July 29, 2012

Strengths: It's a shock. Is that a strength?

Weaknesses: Seals are terrible! Is it bad I know when the seals are gone cause I'm getting use to it shooting oil out that hits my knees? Very aggravating. Seals only last a few hundred miles. Crazy for a shock with a ridiculous msrp.

Bottom Line:

I'm going back to my rockshox Judy sl... I will never buy a fox product again.

This fork is easy to tune, and once it is, you can forget about it. It has great lateral stiffness and works great over the small bumps. I prefer a very stiff setting (coming from a Scalpel Carbon with Carbon Lefty fork, and this fork does not disappoint. The lefty Carbon is still the stiffest fork on the market, but this is a close second.

Strengths: easy to tune, reliable, tracks well and has a great lockout

Weaknesses: white is getting lame as a fork color, almost impossible to use the last half inch of travel no matter what you set the sag at and getting pretty darn expensive unless you find it on sale

Bottom Line:

This is a good fork but as with most Fox air forks it is a bit too progressive at the end of its travel and almost never uses all of its advertised travel. I think I will send it to Push and have them modify the air chamber to get full use of travel. Overall a very good fork and very reliable .

Strengths: Build Quality
Out of the box the fork is visually stunning. Everything from the lowers to the seals to the knobs are built with quality in mind. My only gripe would have to be the plastic screw-on cable guide. I feel the Rockshox method of building it into the fork crown is far superior as well as cleaner. Nevertheless, the build quality is definitely solid.

Features
First off, I'd like to state that this might be the most tunable fork ever made. There are a great range of settings for rebound, compression and lockout. The dials are nice anodized aluminum knobs which are very accessible to the rider at all times. Coming from a Rockshox fork (rebound knob at the bottom of the fork), I enjoyed having the ability to adjust rebound settings on the fly during the ride. The low speed compression adjustment was useful as well. It allowed me to adjust how sensitive the fork reacted to bumps. The same can be done on a Rockshox fork (tuning of neg/pos air chambers), however it cannot be done on the fly. The lockout platform is very solid, almost feels like a rigid fork. You can also adjust the lock threshold level as well, very similar to Rockshox's floodgate control.

Ride Quality
On the trail the fork shines. Tracks extremely well over all terrain. The fork is laterally stiff and steering is very accurate. The fork can be as active as you want it to be. I'd definitely suggest getting to understand all the settings and what they do in relation to the trail and trying out different settings to suite your needs. This fork can be tuned to anyone's liking, you just have to put the time in to tune it according to your trail. On climbs the lockout proved to be stiff, however I tuned the fork for a stiff ride which would not bob or drive under braking so locking the fork out was not required on all climbs even out of saddle. Small amount of oil rings appeared on the uppers as the ride progress, very similar to what I've seen on my 09 RS SID. Overall one of the best forks I've ridden in a long time. As ride quality goes it is on par with an 09 Rockshox SID, but gets the edge due to the on-the-fly adjustments.

Maintenance
Out of the box I changed the travel on the fork from 100mm to 80mm. The procedure to service the fork was straight forward just like Rockshox. Both companies do a good job of documenting their maintenance procedures. The maintenance intervals seem to a little less frequent than Rockshox but it is too early to determine how the fork will perform/feel after a few more rides.

Weaknesses: Other than the plastic cable guide, I have no real gripe about this product. I cannot complain about the price because all forks are a little overpriced for what they are.

Weaknesses: The 120mm does not lend itself to my application. I should have gone with the 100mm that comes with the frame

Bottom Line:

Great fork, just make sure it's correct for your setup. The steering is a bit lazy compared to my 69er SS with the maverick. Beyond that the lockout and adjustability are great. Just what you would expect from FOX.

Recently purchased a 09 Specialized Stumpjumper Marathon 29er model just released from Specialized. Once the bike was assembled out of the box the fork was leaking oil and would not hold air. Dropped it off at a local Specialized dealer they thought they fixed it. One hour ridding on the ROAD the lock out stopped working as well as the rebound adjustment. Took it back to the shop. Called Fox: they said send it in and I should get it back in a week or two. The customer service from FOX was terrible, they acted like they were doing me a favor by fixing it for free, it never worked out of the box. Bottom line if you purchase one of their forks be prepared to go it alone and don't expect customer service to own up to their mistakes or try to resolve any issues. I am most disappointed not in the forks failure, but in the way customer service handled the entire situation. I understand accidents happen in manufacturing and assembly but not in their grievous response. I can say I will now be a loyal Rock Shox customer.

Weaknesses: White, price, Seals leaked after about one month had them replaced and they still leak, clean before each ride invert bike to keep things wet FOX says probably my fault they will replace them with a charge to me really don't want to ride the 26 while i am waiting.

Bottom Line:

For the price i would expect better customer service if i had it to do over probably would look at a rock shox i have heard good things about there customer service bottom line i would rather not have a fork with this problem

I always loved Fox Shocks. They come through everytime. Have a Minutou 29er on my Single Speed.. Not a bad Fork..But Running the Fox 29er on my Niner is Just way to good.... If only had a lock out on handle bar. this fork would be untouchable... If You look around you can find the Fox 29er under 600.00.. Like @ UniversalCycles.com

This is my first 29'er bike and I couldn't be happier with the Fox fork. It is very plush for only 100mm travel and it tracks very well. Plenty of adjustability and the lock-out is great for climbing out of the saddle. I'm glad I spent a little more and got the Fox instead of a Reba.

This fork works really well with the Niner SIR. If you look at the dimensions of the Niner rigid fork, you'll see that the axle to crown measurement is fairly high even though the frame was supposedly designed for an 80mm fork. The rigid fork has 40mm offset. Going with the 100mm Fox fork with 46mm offset, the handling of the bike was perfect. The only downside was the height of the front end when locked out, but I quickly adjusted to it. Without spending any time tweaking all the adjustment parameters, the fork has done a wonderful job of absorbing the bumps. This fork is lightyears better than the BW 0.8 that used to be on the bike (too much stiction, developed lots of creaks and other noises). The price is the one big drawback, so I give it 4 chilis for value.

Excellent performing fork. Versus the REBA on the exact same bike, it noticeably quickened steering, making the bike more nimble in turns. At the same time, however, it is just as stable as before. Took a little tinkering to dial it in, since it is so adjustable, however, I was able to get it set to be more plush than the REBA, but not to the point of allowing too much brake dive or getting overly squashy. I was never able to find that balance with the REBA. I have previously owned and loved a Fox shock and this one does not disappoint. The coil spring model I had before felt even more plush than this air spring model, but I'm not complaining. It is very stiff and well constructed and makes my bike ride and handle better. What more can you say? Oh, I wish they were cheaper and came in other colors!